1. Field of the Invention
The present refers to an apparatus and method for determining the kinetic energy of a ion beam, particularly of light weight ions, such as protons, deuterons, alpha particles, .sup.3 He ions, with an uncertainty lower than the energetic dispersion of the beam.
2. Description of Related Art
Understanding of energy and energy dispersion of a particle beam, such as the ions extracted from a cyclotron, or particle accelerator, is of great importance in a number of applications.
A typical case is represented, for instance, by the collection of nuclear data, which are of interest not only in the field of basic nuclear physics, but also in many fields of applied research, such as the production of highly pure radionuclides.
In fact, cyclotrons of low and medium energy are being produced commercially, which are intended mainly for use in applied research (biomedicine, materials science, ultimate analysis, etc.).
The information on the beam energy, which can be inferred from accelerator parameters supplied by the producer, is insufficiently precise in certain cases, such as the ones cited above, in which the cyclotron must be calibrated by a method sufficient to allow an absolute energy determination.
In fact, the uncertainty in the measurement must be lower than the energy dispersion of the beam. It would, furthermore, be desirable to have a sufficiently simple calibration method to easily carry out the periodical reproducibility tests on the cyclotron parameters.